Yorkville Common Pantry
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Yorkville Common Pantry 2009 Annual Report Yorkville Common Pantry Letter from the Executive Director Dear Friends, As Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP) enters its 29th year of service to our community, the challenges before us are greater than any year in our history. A recent survey conducted by the Food Bank of New York City found Mission Statement Sponsoring Organizations that 59% of food pantries and soup kitchens ran out of food sometime during the year; 47% of emergency food sites turned people away due to a lack of food or resources; and at least 1.3 million New York City residents use food pantries and soup kitchens. The Yorkville Common Our 19 religious sponsoring organizations not only provide volunteers, Pantry (YCP) is dedicated to Board members, funds, food and other donations, but further infuse our At YCP, our overall meal count went up 19% this year, thus surpassing the 2 million meal mark for the first work with profound meaning and reward. We consider these organizations time in our history. Despite the incredible challenges posed by this burgeoning need, we managed to meet reducing hunger while promot- to be caring members of the extended YCP family, and feel very fortunate demand and not turn anyone away. We even expanded our pantry service area to address the growing needs of families in the 10039 and the 10031 zip codes that were not otherwise being served. ing dignity and self-sufficiency. to have their dedication and involvement. In the pantry program, we served 6,219 families and 14,503 individuals, an increase of 38% and 32% respec- YCP champions the cause of the tively, from the year before. Through our 24|7 YCP program, we served 1,674 families from outside of our hungry through food pantry and eleven core zip codes, all of whom came to us either because other food providers were out of food or were located out of reach of their home. In every instance, we provided emergency food and/or a referral to a pantry meal distribution programs, nu- •The Brick Presbyterian Church •St. James’ Church •The Church of St. Edward the Martyr •St. Jean Baptiste Church closer to their home or accessible via public transportation. To our homeless and marginally housed clients, YCP served 80,000 hot and brown bag meals. The total number of meals served in our food pantry, 24|7 YCP •The Church of St. Ignatius Loyola •St. Joseph Yorkville trition education, basic hygiene and hot meal programs made YCP the largest single site community food provider in the State of New York. services, homeless support, and •The Church of the Heavenly Rest •St. Thomas More Catholic Church •The Church of the Holy Trinity •St. Vincent Ferrer Church While we served a huge amount of food this year, we remained focused on ensuring that our food is not only related services. YCP’s communi- •Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church •Temple Emanu-El plentiful but meets high standards of freshness and nutrition. Thus, to the greatest extent within budgetary ty-based programs focus on East •Park Avenue Christian Church •Temple Israel of the City of New York constraints, we have continued to provide milk, lean meat, fresh vegetables and access to nutrition and cooking •Park Avenue Synagogue •Temple Shaaray Tefila classes for adults and children. Last year, these nutritional cooking classes saw a 33% increase in enrollment, Harlem and other underserved •Park Avenue United Methodist Church •The Unitarian Church of All Souls serving 200 clients a month and helping many more families to make more healthy choices and stretch their •St. Stephen of Hungary “food dollars” during these uncertain times. Due to the high demand and positive feedback of our clients, we communities throughout New will be expanding the number of classes in 2010 to offer more families these opportunities. York City. Last year we also began screening each pantry family using a comprehensive “benefits calculator”, deter- mining their eligibility for an array of services and then helping them access those government benefits. Five hundred people accessed over a million dollars in government benefits atYCP last year, much of this accomplished fully on-site through the streamlined electronic Paperless Office System.We also continued to provide concrete services for the most vulnerable—4,274 showers, 933 haircuts, and 1,606 loads of laundry to homeless men and women. In the new year, we will continue to expand our efforts to assist our clients with a “hand up” through referrals to jobs and government benefits, as well as teaching new skills and healthy dietary habits, while still providing weekly access to fresh food for our families, as well as 8 hot meals a week. We will work hard to secure more food donations than ever before, to partner with additional agencies to increase the services we can provide, and to raise more funds to offer healthy, nutritional food to the increasing numbers of neighbors in need. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks for the generosity of our many supporters, including individual donors and friends, private foundations, sponsoring organizations, elected officials, and public funders. Together, we are making a difference for many vulnerable New Yorkers. Sincerely, Stephen Grimaldi 1 This year has been one of transition for YCP, with Jeff Ambers concluding his generous service as Interim Executive Director upon the selec- Board of Directors tion and arrival of our new Executive Director, Stephen Grimaldi. Stephen has brought new energy and dedication to the implementation of our programs, revitalization of our development efforts, and has marshalled the talents of our staff, board, neighborhood partners, and volunteers to best serve our clients during this time of increased need and decreased resources. Chair: Sherrell Andrews Antonia Abraham Anne P. MacKinnon We have improved our communications with our supporters with a completely redesigned website, www.ycp.org , and have joined Facebook Hartley Bernstein Doreen S. Morales and Twitter to better engage with our constituents---clients, volunteers, donors and the general public. We are better connected than ever! Vice Chairs: Linda E. Holt Monty Blanchard Dolores Morrissey Gerard M. Meistrell Hilary Hart Brown Michael Nachman Our services are provided to our clients with dignity and respect through the dedicated, collaborative efforts of our staff and volunteers. Rebecca Robertson Thomas Chin Neda Navab YCP has only 19 full-time staff, and we are able to operate in such a cost effective manner because of the efforts of thousands of volun- Kathy L. Nalywajko Didi Fenton-Schafer Peter Pront teers from our sponsoring organizations, local schools, corporations and other nonprofit entities. Last year, volunteers performed 63% of Candice K. Frawley Madeleine Rice our labor hours, meaning the organization could apply the considerable monies saved to help fund our voluminous food purchases and Treasurer: Mary A. McCaffrey Edward Gallagher Lite Sabin client services. Katherina Grunfeld Wendy Gartner Salles This year, we cut costs in every possible way in order to serve our clients the most nutritious, wholesome food we could provide. We Secretary: Elaine Weiss Carolyn Handler Mallory Spain renegotiated and bid out contracts due to expire, investigated gas and electricity costs through independent brokers, and secured donated Jamie Hirsh Wendy Stein produce from farms. Food was collected and donated by schools, churches, synagogues and community partners, as well as by major pro- Executive Stephen Grimaldi Lindsay Higgins Veronica Mallory Stubbs viders like the Food Bank and City Harvest. To purchase additional required food at the lowest prices, YCP engaged wholesalers to actively Director: Stuart Johnson Laura Weissberg bid each week. Patricia Kelly David Wengrod Susan Kessler Daryl Wilkerson By virtue of these efforts and the generosity of our supporters, YCP was able to provide life-sustaining, healthy meals throughout the YCP food programs at a food cost to YCP of only 73 cents. These savings have allowed us to purchase more food for distribution and to fund Suzanne Kizis Roland Woodland our nutrition and education classes. Kathy A. Leo Message from the Chair Various neighborhood partners, both longstanding and new, helped to provide increased support services to meet our clients’ needs. Our generous donors, in response to appeals, events and our highly successful spring benefit, provided critical additional financial support, Board Members Retire despite the challenging economic conditions, to help us continue our longstanding philosophy of turning no client away. We are both grate- ful and proud of what YCP has been able to accomplish this year to serve our growing number of clients in need. Three members of the YCP Board have retired this year. Lucy Borge served as Board chairman, and was a longtime member of the Development and Nominations committees, in addition to serving as editor of our On behalf of the Board of Directors, the staff, and our volunteers, our deepest thanks for your continued support of Pantry Press newsletter and chairing many annual benefits. Helen Chapman previously received the Silver YCP. Ladle Award in honor of her extended record of service on the YCP Board on December 8, 2008. She stepped Lucy Borge (center) received the Silver down from the YCP Board following her appointment as a Deacon at Brick Presbyterian Church, but promises Ladle Award in honor of 17 years of Sincerely, to return to service at YCP in the future. Cheryl Bundy also retired after many years of dedicated service to the service on the YCP Board. She is Sherrell Andrews Board and as a volunteer. Chair, Board of Directors congratulated by Board Chair, Sherrell Andrews and Executive Director Stephen Grimaldi on September 21, 2009. 2 3 Halana, a wife and mother of three children were happily living and thriving in Harlem. Suddenly devastation struck when her 2,002,996 Meals Served husband was shot and killed when an assailant robbed him on his way home from work.